Digidestined Cupids
by Nine1
Summary: Taichi finds out that Yamato and Koushiro are going to break up at their next Digidestined meeting. He decides to try to get the blonde for himself, once and for all, with some outside help from a few friends... Taito. Complete.
1. Secrets Spread

A/N: My fourth Digimon fanfic. Yay! Okay, if you just picked on whatever fic at random, here's a little summary for you in case you missed the other one. Taichi has a major crush on Yamato, but knows that Yamato is dating Koushiro, and he thinks it could never happen. Until Hikari tells him that she heard from Takeru that Yamato is going to dump Koushiro at their next Digidestined meeting. And so, Taichi decides that if it's true, he is going to try to get Yamato to be his boyfriend. This fic is going to be funny and romancey. Hope you like! R/R.

Pairings: Taito (duh...), Yamashiro (Just at the very beginning), one-sided Yamagabu (That is, Gabumon has a crush on Yamato), Takeyako, one-sided Koura (How *do* you write that pairing?), one-sided Taiora (Don't worry, it's only Sora crushing on Tai), and those are only the pairings mentioned in *this chapter!*

Disclaimer: I do not own Digimon, the characters, or...anything mentioned in this fic besides the ideas that came directly from my mind.

Dedications: Um, Zatchi (Wooh! Told you I'd get you), Kat-chan (You must write more fics with Ake-chan in them), Sarah-chan (In case you didn't see the dedication in the last chapter of Party At Mimi's), and Ikky (For doing the dumb disclaimer for me twice in Party At Mimi's and being a good inspiration-muse-thingy).

Secrets Spread

Taichi stared sadly out of the window of his bedroom, lying on his side, spread out on the bed. He sighed. He thought of his long-time crush on his best friend...and how pointless it was. Yama was never going to notice him, right? I mean, he had Koushiro. They had a great relationship and Tai was only getting in the way. He sat up on his bed and reached out for his cd player, his hand fumbling around in the dark until it brushed across the surface and grabbed the cd player, pulling it onto his lap. He ran his finger over the side until he could feel the buttons he knew by memory, and pressed Play. He was just about to put his headphones on when the door was thrown open and light intruded into the darkness, and he glanced up and squinted at the form of his sister in the doorway.

"Taichi! Taichi, guess what? You'll never guess what I heard from TK on the phone. And why do you have the lights off?" She flicked the switch on.

"I don't care," he grumbled, turning away from the light and putting his arm over his face, pulling his headphones up to press one against the ear not smothered by the pillow.

Hikari sighed and walked to her brother's bed, climbing onto it and laying down beside her brother. She pulled his headphone away from his ear and he turned to glare at her. 

"What?"

"Just hear me out, okay? This isn't like you to be so mopey. And besides, my wonderful news will cure that."

"How could something Gilligan said to you over the phone cheer me up?"

"It's about Yamato and Koushiro."

He shot up in bed. Okay, so maybe it *could* cheer him up a bit. It wouldn't be so bad to just listen, would it?

"Well, spill it, woman! What did Hat Boy say to you?!"

Hikari giggled. "That's more like it. TK says that he was talking to Yamato and Yama says that he wants to dump Koushiro at our next meeting, which is, by the way, tomorrow. And if that's true, you still have a chance to make that blonde bishonen yours!"

By now Taichi had his pillow in a death grip and he was biting down on the end from excitement. Yamato...and Koushiro...broken up? Tomorrow? Chance with blonde boy? This *was* good news.

And then pessimism overtook him. "But what if Yamato likes someone else? What if he just laughs at me if I hit on him? Or what if he's disgusted? What if-"

"Taichi, if you spend your life asking, "What if?" all the time, then you might as well not really live at all. Sometimes, it's good to take risks. Are you not the Child of Courage? Are you not a Yagami? Are you not a man?!"

"Okay, okay! First of all, we have to see what happens tomorrow. Hat Boy may just be fibbing, you know."

"Why would he?"

"Let's just wait for tomorrow, okay? Before we start plotting to trap Yamato and all."

"Oh, okay."

She hopped off of the bed and walked to the doorway. She placed her hand on the wall and turned back to him, grinning. "Oh, and by the way, you didn't hear all of that from me. I sort of promised TK I wouldn't tell anyone, which of course meant that I would tell you and now I'm off to tell Gatomon. I'm sure he told Miyako...oh well. We'll all just have to act surprised tomorrow, I suppose."

And with that she exited the room. Taichi hugged his pillow and laughed into it, and Agumon came in through the door to stare at him blankly. "Tai, are you feeling okay? You're laughing. I thought you said you were busy sulking. I don't know what sulking means, but I thought it had something to do with being sad?"

"Forget the sulking, Agumon! Tomorrow, I may have the chance of witnessing the greatest thing to happen to the Digidestined since the defeat of that annoying woman, Arukenimon!"

"And her odd sidekick-guy, Mummymon."

"Yeah, him too."

"So, what's the greatest thing to happen to the Digidestined since the-"

"Yamato and Koushiro are going to break up!"

Agumon blinked. "We're supposed to be happy about that?"

"Well, of course we are!"

"But I thought break-ups were supposed to make lots of crying and sad people and depressing stuff."

"Well, not this break-up! This one is going to make a very happy Taichi." He rubbed his hands together, grinning and laughing to himself. Agumon merely shook his head, wondering if he would ever fully understand human emotions and their sudden mood-changes. 

~ ~ ~ ~

Gabumon stared at his human partner for a long time, trying to figure out what in the world could be causing such disturbance in his feelings. Yamato hadn't moved once since he got home from band practice. He just lay on his bed, staring at the opposite wall and clutching the blanket to himself. No matter how many times Gabu had tried to ask him what was wrong, the boy wouldn't answer. Gabu sighed and turned back around, staring at the floor and going through his head everything that had happened lately. Yamato had left for band practice in the same mood, not talking much and with a sadness in his eyes that only a few select people, such as Gabumon himself, could see. Before that, he had talked to his brother on the phone and then hung up and run a hand through his hair, sighing. Maybe Takeru had said something to upset him? No, the boy wouldn't dare upset his big brother like that. 

Then again, they seemed to be talking about Koushiro. Had something gone wrong in their relationship? Maybe Koushiro hurt his dear Yamato? Gabumon narrowed his eyes. If that redhead had said one wrong thing to Yama-chan...he relaxed. Yamato was his best friend. He would tell him everything he wanted to know soon enough. He turned back around on the bed and saw that the blonde had turned around to face him, staring forward at nothing.

Gabumon decided to try to talk to him again. "Yamato?"

Yamato slowly turned to look at Gabumon, and Gabumon cringed at the despair he saw in his deep blue eyes. "What's wrong, Yama-chan?" he asked carefully.

Yamato stared at the young blue wolf for a while, and then sat up in bed, deciding that it was okay to tell his Digimon partner the truth. "Come here," he whispered, patting his lap. 

Gabumon quickly climbed onto his legs and crawled onto his lap, curling up and staring lovingly up at the boy. Yamato sighed and stroked Gabumon's fur along his back, smiling when the blue Digimon arched into his touch. 

"Gabu, I've decided to break up with Koushiro tomorrow."

He felt Gabumon tense under his hand and look up into Yamato's eyes, searching for a sign of truth in his words. Could it be? Could his dream finally be coming true? He only saw truth in his partner's eyes, and his own eyes shone in glee. 

Yamato stroked his fur again, trying to ease the tension, and did his best to comfort the Digimon by smiling genuinely. "It's for the best, Gabu. I never should have spent an entire month with Koushiro anyways. It just wasn't meant to be. Besides, I only did it because I was upset at seeing my true crush walk a girl to her classroom. I guess I got sort of jealous and knew Koushiro had a crush on me, and so I asked him out to sort of get back at the other boy."

Yamato cringed, waiting for Gabumon to get after him for playing with Koushiro's feelings, but nothing happened. He missed the sadness that flashed through his partner's eyes. Yamato had a crush on someone else now? An even deeper thing than what he had with Koushiro? Gabumon took a deep breath and decided he had to do a lot of thinking, alone. "If you think that's what's best, then by all means, go for it, Yama-chan. I'm with you on this decision."

Yamato sighed in relief. He didn't think he could go through with it if Gabumon disapproved. He depended on the Digimon's judgment to make some of his decisions, because he knew Gabumon was a whole lot smarter than he usually let on. Besides, most of Gabumon's advice and ideas worked out perfectly. If they didn't, they at least worked out. Upon hearing the words, "I'm with you on this decision", he knew his heart was set. The next day, at the Digidestined meeting, he would have to break it to Koushiro that he was going to dump him. What ever happened after that just happened.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Really? Yamato and Koushiro?"

Takeru nodded and grinned, leaning against his girlfriend and nuzzling her neck. "Tomorrow, we'll at least have a show at our meeting. Who knows? There may even be a few arguments involved."

"How fun," Miyako said, giggling and hugging her boyfriend around the waist. "And I bet they don't even know the other likes them. They have absolutely no clue about each other's crushes, do they?"

"Nope. If we have to, I suppose we could give them a little push."

"Oh, but we'll have to work on them both."

"I definitely would have to help Yamato get over his stubbornness, and now that Hikari knows about it all, she could help give Taichi a little shove. Oh, but what *will* we do about Koushiro? He'll be heartbroken when he finds out Yamato wanted Taichi all along and Taichi wants him back. We'll have to have a little talk with him after the meeting, explaining the situation." 

"He's a big boy. He can handle it. Especially after what I've heard from special sources."

Miyako grinned mischievously and Takeru gaped at her. "You know something before I do? Oh, tell me what, please!"

"It seems our dear Koushiro didn't really want Yamato in the first place, either. He was actually trying to make a certain red-haired girl jealous, and the relationship ended up lasting longer than he would have guessed."

"So they were both scared to dump the other and hurt their feelings?"

"Exactly."

"Ohhhh, this is priceless!" Takeru laughed. "Tomorrow is going to be *so* fun! And you say Koushiro has a crush on somebody else...red-haired girl. Red-haired girl...Sora?!"

"Yup!" Miyako squealed, nodding. 

Takeru giggling and fought to control his breathing in his excitement. "So, tomorrow Yamato is going to dump Koushiro because he likes Tai but doesn't know Tai likes him back, and Koushiro won't mind because then he'll go for Sora, but he doesn't know Sora has a crush on Tai?! I am so going to love being a Digidestined Cupid."

"This is even better than a soap opera. And I love soap operas," Miyako said, grinning. 

"Tomorrow better come soon, because if it doesn't, I'm going to die from excited gasping laughter."

"I'll die along with you for the same reasons, don't worry."

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Ooooo...I wrote a story with some actual good plot in it! Wow. Big tangled web of crushes...ack. Have to work that out in the next few chapters. Well, did you all love it? Like it? Hate it? Tell me! Review, pleaaaaase? 


	2. Surprise At The Meeting

A/N: Okay, second chapter. In this one, they have their meeting, and things don't exactly go as planned. At all. A little angst, a little romance, and a lot of humor and confusion make an interesting meeting. I can safely say they'll all go home either laughing their heads off or confused stupid, but I'll let you all be the judges of that. Pairings for this chapter are: (the ending of) Yamashiro, Taito, one-sided Koura, one-sided Taiora, Takeyako, one-sided Kouri (Iori hints at a crush on Koushiro), Veeworm, and Daiken. Lots of pairings. And with all that said, go ahead and read!

Ikky: Ahem.

After the disclaimer and dedications.

Ikky: Nine doesn't own Digimon.

And this chapter is for Sarah-chan, because she makes me want to write more. Hey, Sarah! ^-^'

Taichi hummed happily as he sat in his room beside his sister, bouncing slightly on the bed and earning an annoyed look from Hikari, who soon began bouncing along with him because she was so anxious to see what would happen. They were waiting for the other Digidestined and their digimon to show up for the meeting. Agumon and Gatomon were watching TV, discussing among themselves music videos. 

Soon, TK, Miyako, Ken, Iori, Daisuke, and their digimon joined them, seating themselves along the wall the way they always did. 

"Why do we always gather in Tai's room?" Miyako thought out loud, feeling as if she had already asked somebody this, or somebody had already asked her. 

"Because my room is the shiznaz!" Tai replied, grinning ear-to-ear.

Iori pondered the meaning of "shiznaz" and Ken stared at Tai a bit oddly. Daisuke looked as if he totally agreed.

"Hey, people," Jyou said as he, Mimi, Sora, and Koushiro walked into the room. Tai couldn't help but send a glare Kou's way, but Kou was too wrapped up in his thoughts and trying not to get noticed staring at Sora's ass to see it. 

Gomamon, Palmon, Biyomon, and Tentomon all scrambled to the group of digimon staring at the TV, who had now begun arguing about something to do with pineapples. 

"You didn't arrive with Yama, Kou?" Hikari asked carefully.

Kou continued to stare at the spot in between his feet. Hikari blinked and decided not to ask again. 

"Actually, Hikari," Jyou replied, pushing his glasses back up the bridge of his nose, "when we stopped by Yamato's house to pick him up, Kou kept walking, and when we tried to ask him about it, he wouldn't talk. He hasn't talked the whole way over here. He seems to be deep in thought."

Tentomon was waving his buggy arms in front of Koushiro's face, trying to get a response from the boy. Mimi looked like she was trying hard to figure something out, and Jyou looked worried, as usual.

"And he didn't come with you, either, TK?" she asked the young blonde. 

He shook his head. "I thought he was going to want to come with Kou."

"I just wanted to come alone, okay? Is that a crime?" asked a voice from the doorway. Everyone turned to look at Yamato, and he walked into the room and silently sat the closest to the door. Gabumon looked just as glum as his human partner. He sat beside Yama instead of joining the other digimon. Tension settled in the room as a few people looked between Yamato and Koushiro, who were both doing a good job of blocking out everything around them and hadn't even glanced at each other once. The people who had no idea what was going on between them all decided to stay quiet and not ask questions, even though they were all picking their brains trying to figure out what they had been left out of.

"Why is it so quiet all of a sudden? Do I make you all uneasy or something?" Yamato asked harshly, glancing up to eye them all.

"Yamato," the blue digimon beside the blonde began, but the boy held a hand up to silence him.

"So let's get this show on the road!" Tai broke in, bouncing on his bed even more. He was the only one smiling at this point. They all began to feel better after he broke the ice and they began to discuss a trip to the Digiworld. 

After about five minutes, Yamato and Koushiro both stood up at the same time, Yamato gripping his hair and saying through gritted teeth, "I can't take this," and Koushiro looking determined and declaring, "I have something to announce."

The chatter stopped and necks snapped towards the two standing facing each other in the middle of their circle. The two boys looked a little surprised that they had both stood at the same time.

"Go ahead and announce it then, I can wait," Yamato began, as Koushiro started sitting down again, saying, "I'll let you go first."

They both paused, and then Yamato sighed in exasperation and said, "Fine. Me first. Kou, I have to tell you something, but I think everyone should hear it so there can't be any lies about what happened."

Kou nodded, eyes only slightly wide. He hoped to death that Yamato was not about to say a certain three-word phrase that neither had spoken to each other as of yet.

"Kou, I'm sorry but...I love somebody else. I can't hide it anymore."

Kou's mouth dropped open, as did half of the group's.

"I can't go on lying to you by going out with you when at night I dream about another. I'm not about to say here who that other person is, because that just wouldn't be right, but I am going to say this: Kou, I'm dumping you. I'm sorry for lying to you."

"No!" Kou leapt up, looking angry. Yamato flinched and waited for Kou to chew him out. "That's not fair, that's just not fair!"

"Kou, I said I'm so-"

"I was going to dump you first!"

Now it was time for Yamato's mouth to drop open. The mouths of half of the Digidestined had already been open.

"What?"

"You got to it before me! That just isn't fair. I shouldn't have let you speak first. Well, Ishida Yamato, all I have to say is this: I dump you back!"

Yamato blinked. "You dump me back? Is that even a proper sentence?"

Koushiro hesitated. "Well, no. I don't believe so, anyway, but we're getting off topic here. So, we're both okay with the dumping?"

"Obviously, yes."

"Okay then. Do any of you have objections?" he asked the shocked-looking group of kids. None of them answered him, so he continued, "Okay, so it's settled. Man, that was easier than I thought."

He then grinned at Yamato. "You liked someone else, too?"

Yamato grinned back. "You too? Man, now I'm going to have to get it out of you who you like."

"Not a chance, Ishida."

"Wait!" Daisuke screeched, standing up. "What the hell just went on here?"

Yamato and Koushiro eyed him curiously. "We broke up, why?"

"Well, it seems to me that half the people in this room already knew about it, and I want to know: What happened to the other half?"

"Easy. I told TK, who I'm guessing told Miyako and Hikari, and I'm sure Hikari told Taichi."

"I told Mimi, and blackmailed her into not telling anyone else."

"You, Ken, Iori, Sora, and Jyou didn't know about it. Wait a minute, 'blackmailed?'"

Koushiro laughed nervously at his verbal slip-up and waved his hand. "Oh, never mind that."

Yamato raised an eyebrow, and then shrugged it off, deciding he didn't want to know.

"So, Koushiro's single now?" Iori asked, sounding a little hopeful. 

"Er, yes," Koushiro replied, eyeing the youngest Digidestined.

"Okay!" the bowl-haired kid said, grinning almost as brightly as Tai.

They all sweatdropped. "Anyways," Tai broke in, "I think our meeting was supposed to be about a visit to the Digiworld?"

"Right," Yamato agreed, crawling over to Tai's side and once again acting as second leader, "we were talking about having a picnic over there at our last meeting. Does everybody still want to go through with it?"

Various heads nodded, and the digimon all cheered. They hadn't been to their homeworld in a while. 

"Okay, so a picnic in the Digiworld it is!" Tai continued happily.

"What day will it be, though?" asked Hikari.

"Not tomorrow, because there's soccer practice," Daisuke replied, and Ken nodded beside him.

"Well, I'm working at the flower shop all day Thursday," Sora said.

"I've got kendo lessons Friday."

"Who has something to do on Saturday?"

No answer.

"Okay, so then the picnic in the Digiworld is on Saturday!"

"Today's Wednesday, right?" 

"Yeah, it is."

"Too far away!"

"You'll last until then, Vee."

"Will not!"

"I declare this Digidestined meeting over," Taichi announced.

They all stood up and stretched as they walked out of Taichi's room and went home.

Taichi was left laying on his bed and sighing, Hikari sitting on the edge of the bed, grooming Gatomon's fur and watching TV. "That was less dramatic than I thought it would be. I mean, there weren't even any punches thrown," Taichi said, a tad bit disappointed.

"I think it was pretty damn dramatic. I mean, they were both going to dump each other at the same time. How is that not dramatic? The final ending to the pointless relationship that we all knew was not going to last."

Taichi smirked and rolled over on the bed, looking at his sister. "Okay, it was dramatic, then."

Agumon climbed onto the bed and laid down curled up against Tai's chest. "Tai, you were right, there wasn't any crying or depression or anything afterwards. There was tension before it happened, but not really much once the secret was let out."

"That's because we knew neither one was going to be hurt."

"Yeah, I guess you're right. I'm just happy that there wasn't any heartbreak. It would have been bad if people got upset."

"Actually, I think we were all happy that they broke up. Everyone left smiling."

"Not everyone," Agumon mumbled, staring down at the blanket.

Tai and Kari looked at him, eyebrows raised. "Who got sad?"

Gatomon stood on Kari's lap and looked up at her. "He's right. Not everyone was happy about this. Gabumon looked really sad through the whole thing, even when Yama got happy again. He looked like his heart was broken."

Agumon nodded to confirm her statement. "He looked upset. Really upset."

Kari looked at Tai, eyebrows furrowed. "What happened to Gabumon?"

Taichi shook his head slowly. "I don't know. I don't have a clue."

~ ~ ~ ~

Takeru and Miyako curled up on Miyako's bed, ready to begin their usual daily gossip. 

"Okay, so now what do we have? Yamato and Koushiro, broken up at last. Taichi looked happy the moment we walked in, so I'm guessing my brother was right in guessing Hikari told him. Sora looked surprised at it all, so she didn't know about it. Not that she would have cared, because she went right back to glancing at Taichi out of the corner of her eye every five seconds," Takeru laughed.

Miyako giggled. "And now it seems we have little Iori wanting in on the confusing crush-web. Did you see the look in his eyes when he asked about Koushiro being single?"

"Yes, I certainly did," Takeru confirmed, grinning widely. "Koushiro was definitely staring at Sora's ass on his way in. Did you see that?"

"I have an eagle's eye, TK," Miyako replied, grinning just as widely as he did. "We're going to have to get right to work on getting the main couple together."

"Tai and Yamato? Definitely. Those two have needed help in getting each other for the past few years. Are we to help Koushiro and Sora get together, or should we stay out of it, because of Sora's crush on Tai?"

"I think we could convince her that Koushiro would be better for her than Tai, but I don't want to be the one to break it to Sora that Tai's gay, and she might think we just don't want her to be with him."

"Yeah, so we better stay out of that."

"Better her find out than me tell her and get beat up."

"Sora wouldn't beat you up, Miya."

"She so would! Have you seen her play soccer? She's got a little muscle on her."

"Never mind. We need to have a nice little chat with Tai and Yamato when we get a chance. Oh, separately, of course."

"Of course."

~ ~ ~ ~

Daisuke twirled a long strand of Ken's hair around his finger, smiling when Ken purred and turned his head to nuzzle his neck. "Wasn't that a surprise? Yamato and Koushiro dumping each other, I mean?"

"Not too much. See, I knew that Koushiro had a crush on Sora before the whole relationship began, and the only reason he had said yes to Yamato was he hoped that it would at least spark jealousy in Sora, but apparently, it didn't."

"It seems to me that Sora is crushing on Tai, but I can't be sure. And how did you know about Koushiro liking Sora, anyways?"

Ken grinned. "Well, one night Koushiro got drunk, and I happened to be with him. He started telling me all about how he loved Sora and stuff, but Sora would never look his way, and he had to do something to make her want him like he wanted her."

"Does he know that he blurted that to you?"

"Neither of us ever mentioned it after that night, so either he didn't remember he revealed it or he's just trying to make it seem like he doesn't."

"Anyone else know about this?"

"Miyako. I sort of told her after she bugged it out of me."

"How'd she know you had a secret?"

"She has her ways."

Daisuke gave his boyfriend an odd look. 

"Don't ask."

Veemon and Wormmon rolled over Daisuke's foot, making out. Daisuke had yet to figure out how they managed to make out, with Wormmon having a strangely shaped mouth. When he asked Veemon, Veemon said he had no idea, either.

"So, who do you think Yamato likes?"

"I'm thinking either Tai or Kari."

"Why them?"

"Because I once saw him with 'Yagami' written in red pen on his arm."

"Big deal, Tai could have scribbled it on him."

"It was in the middle of a heart, with a few little hearts around it."

"Oh. Can't be Kari."

"Why not?" 

"I already know who she likes, and so does Yama."

  
"Who?"

"Can't say."

"Oh, come on, Dai!"

"Sorry, I just can't tell you."

Ken tried the puppy-dog look, but Dai only crossed his arms and shook his head. "Not working."

The bluenette sighed. "Just a hint?"

"It's not who you'd expect."

"Oh, gee, that's a great hint. Now I can scratch TK off my list. There's only, what, eight others she could have a crush on?"

"Not counting?"

"TK, Tai, you, and me."

"I guess you'll just have to guess."

Ken sighed and began guessing every single name of each Digidestined, hoping it was even a Digidestined child.

~ ~ ~ ~  


A/N: Even more crushes...hope I don't ruin this fic or anything. It has gotten very fun to write. Who does Kari like? Where does Iori fit into this whole thing? What will Sora say about Tai being gay? Will she even like Koushiro? Will Gabumon ever stop angsting? And most importantly: Will Tai and Yamato *ever* get together?! (Well, this is a Taito, so they eventually will, but that's not the point.) Review this story, please. I know there's more than one of you out there that would like this.


	3. Confessions, Discussions, and the Movies

A/N: Okay, third chapter...right. Summary for this chapter is basically Tai and Kari going to their female friends to ask for help in getting Tai and Yamato together, while Yamato and TK enlist in the help of the males (minus Daisuke). Plotting ensues, and then a trip to the movies. 

Pairings for this chapter: Taito, Kensuke, Takeyako, a tiny bit of Taiora (still one-sided), a little Yamagabu (of course, one-sided), and mentions of Koura.

Disclaimer: Don't own Digimon. Don't sue me. Don't have money. Just don't.

Taichi and Hikari sat on Taichi's bed, the way they always did, talking about what to do now that Yamato and Koushiro were broken up. 

"Now what happens?"

"We begin to set you guys up."

"Who is we?"

"Oh, you know, me, you, maybe a couple of friends-"

"How much is 'a couple'?"

"All the girls. And Daisuke."

"Oh, okay."

Hikari grinned and grabbed his hand, pulling him up from the bed.

"Come on."

"What?"

"Let's go get the girls together."

~ ~ ~ ~

Tai and Kari sat in Tai's room, again, on Tai's bed, only this time with Mimi, Sora, Miyako, and Daisuke in the room. 

"So, what did you call us all here for?" Mimi asked cheerfully.

Kari grinned. "Tai has a little problem that he needs our help with, girls."

"One question."

"Yes, Tai?"

"Since when is Daisuke 'one of the girls'?"

"Oh, long story, just go along with it."

"Uh, okay."

Daisuke beamed at him. Taichi smiled a bit but still seemed confused by it. He hoped Daisuke hadn't become a crossdresser or had undergone a sex change or anything. He shook his head. What was he saying? Daisuke was only twelve.

"So, spill it already. What's the problem?" Sora asked, seeming slightly concerned that her dear Taichi had a problem that he needed help with, but feeling determined to sort everything out for him.

"Well, you see, Taichi has a huge crush on someone, but he doesn't know how to tell the person," Hikari began.

Mimi looked at Sora uncertainly and Sora's smile faltered a little before brightening again. Maybe he was going to announce a crush on her in front of everyone. How romantic!

"We'll do everything we can to aid Taichi in claiming his love," Miyako chimed, grinning from ear-to-ear. 'Finally, he comes out,' she thought, but then cast a slightly worried glance at Sora. 'But how is she going to take it?'

"First of all, I have to admit to keeping a secret from you all. This may come as a surprise to you all, but I've accepted who I am and I'm very comfortable with it," Taichi began.

Mimi and Sora began to look even more worried.

"But I know that if you all are truly my friends, you'll be happy for me, and since you've been presented with this situation before," he glanced at Daisuke, who still looked confused, "I know you guys should be okay with it."

He took a deep breath before going on, eyeing each one of them in turn. "I'm gay."

Mimi and Sora gasped, and Miyako and Daisuke squealed. 

"And I'm in love with Yamato."

Miyako and Daisuke clasped hands. "That is *so* cute!" they exclaimed. 

Taichi smiled a bit but couldn't help but stare at Sora, who looked like the news had physically punched her in the stomach and she couldn't breathe.

Mimi put her hand on Sora's shoulder and said something in a low voice, and Sora shut her eyes. She took a deep breath, and then opened them again, smiling genuinely at Taichi.

Hikari patted Taichi's shoulder, smiling proudly at him for finally coming out to someone else.

"Sora, are you okay with this?" Taichi asked her, rubbing his arm nervously. "You seemed a bit shocked there."

"Of course I'm okay with this, silly! You're in love!" Sora said happily, hugging him tightly.

She shut her eyes, finally coming to a decision in her heart and mind. "As long as you're in love with Yamato, I will put all past feelings to the side and help you attain that which you so much desire, as long as it makes you happy."

Taichi's brow furrowed in confusion, but he patted Sora's back. "Thanks, but what past feelings are you talking about?"  


Sora pulled away and smiled. "Never mind."

"And with that finally out in the open, how in the heck are we going to make Yama fall in love with Tai?" Daisuke asked, oblivious to the seriousness in Sora's, Mimi's, and Tai's actions.

"That's what we're here to decide," Hikari said, thoughtfully chewing on the end of a straw. "We need to find a way to bring Yamato and Tai together, for one. We are having that picnic in the Digiworld, but that's in two days. Do we just remain idle tomorrow?"

"Why don't we go out to the movies tomorrow or something?" Mimi suggested.

"What about we go to the movies today? I mean, it's barely noon," Tai figured.

"Not fair! Ken and I have to go to soccer practice at two."

"And I have to work at the flower shop, remember? I don't get out until five.".

"Well, why don't we do something after you guys come back and get ready?" 

"That sounds good. When does soccer practice end?"

Daisuke looked thoughtful for a while and then smiled. "It ends at four."

"So we'll go to the movies at six."

"Great! We just have to tell the guys."

"No problem, let me handle it."

"Thanks, Miyako. Okay, you guys, let's all get home and get ready."

~ ~ ~ ~

Yamato shifted from foot to foot in front of TK's door. TK had asked him to come to his house to talk about what to do about Tai, and he had just rung the doorbell and was waiting for his brother to come to the door.

TK opened the door, smiling. "Hey, Yama. Come in."

Yamato shuffled through the door and kicked his shoes off, following TK down the hall and into his room. He paused, looking surprised, when he saw all of the male Digidestined, except for Daisuke, sitting somewhere in the room.

"Hey, guys, what are you all doing here?"

"We're here to talk to you about a certain crush you have," Jyou replied, eyeing him curiously.

Yamato groaned and dragged a hand down his face, turning to glare at his brother, who smiled innocently and waved his hand. "Go on, tell them."

Yamato sighed and sat down, crossing his legs and staring at the floor. He knew his face was bright red, from the way it was burning, and he felt reluctant to tell them about his crush, but he knew that they would eventually force it out of him. 

"IlikeTaichi," he mumbled, letting his hair fall over his face to cover it.

"What was that?" Koushiro asked, grinning.

"I have a crush on Taichi," he said, louder this time. 

The boys all exchanged looks and TK patted Matt's shoulder, similar to the way Hikari was right now patting Taichi's shoulder at their house.

"So you finally got it out," Ken said, sighing. "I thought it would take you longer."

"What are you talking about?" Yamato asked, growing annoyed. 

"It was quite a shock when you asked Koushiro out. I had no idea what to think, what with being convinced that you had the hots for Tai," Ken went on, leaning against the bed.

Yamato blushed and turned away from him. He heard Koushiro laugh and say, "I was surprised, too."

Suddenly, he remembered something and looked up at his ex-boyfriend. "By the way, Kou, who is it *you* had a crush on?"

"We're not here to talk about my crushes, Yama, we're here to talk about yours," Koushiro calmly dismissed the question, and Yamato groaned again.

"Now then, what are we going to do about this crush, Yamato? Do you think you could just go right out and tell Taichi that you like him?" Jyou asked, adjusting his glasses.

"No," Yamato said flatly.

TK rolled his eyes. "You always have to be the moody asshole."

Yamato glared at him again but didn't deny it, resting his chin on his knees.

"What about the picnic?" Iori asked, startling them all with his first words since he had arrived.

"Oh yeah, the picnic," TK said, smiling. "We could try to fix you guys up there."

"Please don't ruin our friendship," Yamato mumbled, feeling helpless with them all knowing his secret now.

"Don't worry, we won't." 

TK's cell phone began ringing from somewhere under the covers. "Hold on." TK dived onto his bed and began searching around for the phone, throwing the pillows, blankets, and items that were on top of his bed around until he dug up the desired object. 

He pushed a button and held it up to his ear.

"Hello?"

"Hey, TK!"

"Hey, Miyako!"

A few of the boys groaned. TK ignored them and flopped down on the bed, smiling to himself.

"What's up?"

"Well, the girls have all decided that we should try to get them together sooner, and we all want to go out to the movies at six. Does that sound good?"

"Yeah, that sounds great! We'll meet you guys there at six, then. Love you, bye bye."

"Love you, bye bye."

"Meet them where at six?" asked Ken's voice, which was muffled by all of the blankets covering him.

TK quickly pulled the blankets off of the boy and grinned when his head resurfaced. "We're going to meet the girls, Daisuke, and Taichi at the movies at six, that okay with you all?"

The boys all sounded their agreements, and TK smiled contentedly and placed his cell phone on the couch where he would find it next time.

"Oh boy, I don't know if I'm going to be able to act normally around Tai now that you all know," Yamato said truthfully, scratching his arm.

"Hey, don't worry about us, we'll each be doing our own thing," TK assured him. 

"Oh, I know *you* will, TK."

TK blushed. "Shut up!"

"Just wondering, why does Daisuke hang out with the girls?"

"He's getting in touch with his feminine side."

"What?"

  
"He gave us an entire speech, but I can't remember it right now," TK scratched his head, grinning sideways. "All I remember was that after he was safely out of earshot, I laughed my ass off."

~ ~ ~ ~

Six o' clock eventually came by and all of the Digidestined, except for Tai, Kari, Daisuke, and Ken, were standing in front of the theatre, looking at the list of movies and contemplating which movie to watch. Eventually, the other four arrived, just a bit late, and they decided on watching Scooby Doo, because no one had seen it yet and Daisuke begged them to watch it.

They all filed into the movie theatre, heading straight to the arcade because their movie wasn't going to start for another twenty minutes. They all searched their pockets for change and dollar bills and split up the money twelve ways. This meant that they each only got four quarters.

They were quite a large group, and basically dominated the arcade area, most people leaving because they all ran to get to whatever game they each wanted to play. 

There were two air hockey tables, which Daisuke, Ken, Taichi, and Yamato immediately took. Koushiro and Jyou were battling it out in a fighting game, and Mimi and Sora were messing with a driving game and laughing because neither, apparently, could drive very well. Hikari had challenged Miyako to a game of Dance Dance Revolution, who had gladly accepted the challenge, being the master of DDR. TK and Iori were taking turns playing a shooting game, which ended up being a lesson from TK to Iori on how to aim and shoot so you can't miss.

They all played their respective games until someone announced that they were now seating for Scooby Doo and they all reluctantly ended their games and scrambled to be first in line for the movie. They were earning a few odd looks, because Daisuke and Ken were making out or because Jyou was getting after Koushiro for 'breaking the game machine', none of them could guess at.

"Third door to your right."

They all walked straight to the food court, Yamato and Taichi getting Mimi's and Sora's snacks so they could get into the theatre and save seats for them all. They entered the theatre with tons of junk food and found Mimi and Sora sitting in the second to last row. They all sat in their seats and Yamato and Taichi handed Mimi and Sora their Milky Ways and popcorn. 

Iori glanced from his seat on the far right to see how many seats they all occupied, and laughed when he saw the line of friends extended all the way across the row. He suggested to Ken, who was sitting next to him, to pass the word along the line that maybe half of them should move to the row in front of them, so that they didn't have to be all the way on the end. He nodded and passed the word until it had finally gotten to the other end and the six people on the other side of the row got up and moved a row down, letting the six people left in that row to move a few chairs over until they were all centered. 

Now the people who were left in the original row were, from right to left, Iori, Ken, Daisuke, Mimi, Sora, and Hikari, and the people in the row in front of them were, also from right to left, Miyako, Takeru, Yamato, Taichi, Koushiro, and finally, Jyou. Miyako was in front of Iori, Takeru was in front of Ken...you get the picture.

Anyways, they were all nice and settled when the cheesy music stopped and the theatre began to get dark. They went through the previews sitting still, miraculously, but after the first twenty minutes of the movie, Taichi began to feel restless. He thought it was rather boring. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Yamato, and was surprised to see that Yamato was looking at him, too. Yamato held two hands up next to his face and pretended to be sleeping, and Taichi smiled and nodded, rolling his eyes. He shifted in his seat to look at all of their friends, and had to suppress a laugh when he saw Koushiro was sleeping on Jyou's shoulder, and Jyou was looking like he was about to follow his friend into slumber.

He wondered if maybe Koushiro had a small crush on Jyou, and smiled. If he did, they'd make a cute couple, but he highly doubted it, after hearing a rumor about Koushiro liking Sora. He convinced himself that Jyou and Koushiro were just best friends, and nothing more, the way they had always been. Taichi smiled even more. They reminded him of him and Yamato. 

He looked back towards his blonde best friend and saw that he had followed Tai's eyes and was now smiling at Jyou and Koushiro. Yamato caught Tai's eye and grinned at him, raising his eyebrows, and Tai grinned back. They turned back towards the movie and Tai moved his arm slightly, brushing against Yamato's arm in the process. He caught his breath and looked down at his arm, which was now resting against Yama's. His arm felt warm. He looked back up at the movie, his eyes a little wider now, wondering if Yamato had noticed. He didn't catch the blush that had spread across the blonde's pale cheeks or the hurried look towards their arms.

Taichi waited for Yamato to pull his arm away, but he never did, so he left his own arm there. Taichi couldn't help but sigh as he felt Yamato's warmth against his skin, even if it was just this little touch. He suddenly felt as if an opportunity had presented itself, and slowly began to rub his arm against Yamato's. Yamato looked at Taichi, puzzled, and Taichi looked back at Yamato, smiling. He leant over and whispered in the blonde's ear. "I'm cold, and you're warm." 

Yamato nodded slightly, and, holding his breath, slowly placed his arm over Taichi's, not even daring to entwine his fingers with the other boy's fingers the way he wanted to. Suddenly, he remembered something from a long time ago, in the Digiworld, when he held Taichi's hands right after he saw him again, after being separated for so long. He realized how much he had missed that touch, and before he realized what he was doing, he really did entwine his fingers with Taichi's.

Taichi felt his heart skip a beat as he realized what Yamato was doing, but he brushed his thumb lightly over the back of Yamato's hand to show that it was okay and he didn't mind. Yamato was brought out of his thoughts by the feeling of Tai's thumb brushing over his hand, and his eyes widened slightly when he saw their hands. How did that happen?

Tai laughed to himself, knowing that the blonde had just zoned out and had no idea of his actions, but it gave him a little hope that maybe Yamato did that because he was thinking of him. Suddenly, Taichi felt a tap on his shoulder and glanced back to see that Mimi had leant forward to whisper something to him. He turned his head to offer his ear and he heard her whisper, "We're all bored stupid, so we're going to leave early and go eat somewhere." He nodded in agreement and turned to see if Yamato had gotten the message, smiling when Yamato stood. He stood also and walked down the aisle and out of the theatre, Yamato, Takeru, and Miyako right behind him.

They all formed a group just outside the theatre and stretched their arms and legs, discussing where to eat. After talking about it on their way out, they decided to walk over to Pizza Hut, which was right next to the theatre. They walked over there, talking and laughing. Ken questioned Koushiro about the 'broken machine', and Koushiro grumbled something like "No comment." Jyou just laughed.

"He got mad because he was losing to me and kicked it - hard."

"Did not."

"Yeah, you did."

"Did not."

They argued the entire way over there, only stopping when the waiter came to take their drink orders. They got four Pepsis, three Sprites, three teas, and two Diet Cokes. 

They drinks eventually came, while they were in the middle of discussing the movie. 

"I'm sorry guys, I thought it would be better."

"It's okay, Daisuke, I was looking forward to it, too."

"You have to say that because you're my boyfriend."

Ken sipped his Pepsi but didn't answer. Daisuke narrowed his eyes at him over his tea. 

"You're supposed to deny it."

"Oh, am I?"

"Smartass."

Mimi, Sora, Miyako, and Hikari began discussing whether Fred and Daphne were a better couple than Fred and Velma or not. TK leaned in towards his big brother and whispered in his ear, "Well, anything happen?"

Yamato blushed and nodded slightly, and TK squealed slightly and held his hand over his mouth. "I'll tell you when we get home," Yamato muttered, staring intently at his Pepsi. TK nodded slighty and sipped at his Sprite.

Taichi stared at Hikari's Diet Coke as if it was a winged demon beast and Hikari looked at Tai like he was a moron. "What?"

"How could you drink that poison? You aren't even fat."

"So? I'm just making sure I stay this way."

"But it's pointless."

"Maybe I like the taste."

"It tastes awful!"

"That's your opinion. Frankly, I don't see how you could enjoy that." She tilted her head towards his Sprite.

He held an arm over it, as if protecting it, and stuck his tongue out at her.

TK snuck a sip of Miyako's Diet Coke and smacked his lips together, looking thoughtful. He turned to Tai. "You're right, tastes horrible."

Miyako turned to glare at him. "Did you just sneak a sip of my Diet Coke?"

"Whatever gave you that idea?" TK asked, trying to look as innocent as possible and failing miserably for the huge smile on his face.

Iori looked perfectly happy with his tea until he accidentally squirted lemon juice into his eye. "Argh!" He got up and ran to the bathroom, holding his eye.

Jyou and Koushiro sweatdropped and sipped at their Pepsis, pretending not to know him.

They got their pizza and dug in, finishing it off quickly and not talking much during the entire time they were eating. When Iori came back from the bathroom, he saw that all that was left of their pizza was two bread crusts and a pepperoni. "Hey!"

"Come on, Iori, time to go," Taichi grinned, ruffling his hair. 

Iori's eyes went wide and shimmery and he followed them out, muttering, "Why? Why me?"

~ ~ ~ ~

"Well, spill," TK said happily from his place on Yamato's floor. He had decided to spend the night at his brother's house. Patamon was sleeping in his hat, and Gabumon wasn't there at all. Yamato had worried about his partner for a while but then came to the conclusion that he was smart enough to be able to be on his own if he were out walking or something.

"Okay, while we were watching the movie I felt Taichi brush his arm against mine, and he told me that he was cold, so I covered his arm with my arm. I started thinking about things and I absentmindedly entwined my fingers with his, and then I felt him rub his thumb against the back of my hand, and we held hands like that until you guys told us we were leaving."

"Aha! So he wanted to hold your hand."

"He was cold."

"That is no excuse, my dear brother! I think he likes you."

"You're jumping to conclusions."

"Okay, fine, he doesn't like you."

"Hey..."

TK grinned and Yamato sighed, rolling his eyes and turning over on his bed. 

"Goodnight, Takeru."

TK smiled and closed his eyes, snuggling into his pillow. "Goodnight, Yama."

~ ~ ~ ~

Meanwhile, in the middle of the night, Gabumon sat against a tree, staring at a lake in front of him with sad eyes. He sighed deeply and closed his eyes, which had begun to sting, and rubbed them with the back of his paws. He knew that he should be happy for Yamato now that he was pursuing his real love, but for some reason, he just felt empty, painfully empty. He had loved Yamato in that special way for so long now, how could he just let it go? He knew that Yamato thought Taichi was The One. Yamato had told him himself. If Yamato continued thinking this, and Taichi returned his feelings, which he definitely would, then Gabumon would never have a chance, and he would always just be the one to ask for advice. He felt unneeded, as if Taichi had taken over his job as Yamato's protector, and he was left with nothing to care for. 

The blue digimon slowly rose from his spot leaning against the tree and turned to walk back to the house, feeling sure that by now Yamato had returned home, and not wanting to worry the boy too much. "Maybe he didn't even notice I was gone," Gabumon muttered bitterly. "Maybe he was too wrapped up in his thoughts about Taichi to notice my absence."

He got home and carefully slipped through the window, which Gabumon had left unlocked, and sadly noted that Yamato had Takeru sleeping over, and he was smiling in his sleep. Nope, it didn't seem that Yamato had noticed at all. Before, Yamato would stay up until his digimon returned home, to make sure that he had a way back into the house, but not this time. 

Gabumon narrowed his eyes and went to the blonde's drawer, where he knew he kept his Digivice. He found the object and took it, closing the drawer and hopping back out of the window. He closed it behind him and began walking off down the dark road, the Digivice tight in his fist. 'Let's see if he notices *this* absence,' he thought, as he continued walking towards his dark destination.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Eek, how did angst get in there? Poor Gabumon. I'm so mean. Read and review, please! Thank you all that have reviewed so far, it means so much to me. ^-^


	4. Gabumon Leaves

A/N: Hello, hello. Next chapter here. The title says it all. Nothing to say here...so go ahead and read.

Gabumon Leaves

Miyako and Takeru sat in front of the school computer, messing around with it. "Remember, if you find out that my grade in Science was higher than Michiru's, you owe me ten bucks," Miyako said, grinning and leaning back in her seat.

Takeru typed quickly, eyes searching the computer as he expertly hacked into the grade files. Spending time with Koushiro really was cool, he decided. 

Someone knocked on the door to the computer room and they both nearly jumped two feet into the air. "Who is it?" Takeru asked, frantically trying to get the grades off of the screen.

"It's Gabumon," called the voice.

Takeru relaxed and sighed, but then tensed again. Wait a minute. Why was Gabumon there? Had Yamato found out about this bet and sent him to spy on him?

Miyako carefully got up and walked to the door, opening it for their friend and letting him in. Gabumon shuffled into the room, and Takeru thought he looked oddly different than before. Maybe Gabumon needed a haircut?

"Yes?" Takeru asked hesitantly. "Gabu, why are you here?"

Gabumon shifted on his feet, as if nervous. "Yama sent me here to ask you guys if you could open a Digiport for me to get into the Digiworld."

Takeru raised an eyebrow. "Why isn't he here? You can't just go into the Digiworld alone, it would be like suicide. You could get hurt, not being able to Digivolve without him." He suddenly noticed Gabumon was holding something in his right paw, but he couldn't see what it was. Fists didn't normally look as big as that, even Gabumon's fists.

"You see, I have a sickness, and obviously, none of the veterinarians around here have medicine for Digimon, and besides, Yamato would look strange asking for medicine for his Gabumon. They have this type of herb in the Digiworld that would work perfectly, and I know exactly where. All I need is to go over, really quick, and come right back. Don't worry, I'll be fine." Gabumon wondered to himself if that sounded like an obvious lie.

Takeru smiled. "Oh, okay. Wouldn't want you being sick or anything. Well, let me open a Digiport for you, but you better come back soon. You know how to get back, don't you?" Gabumon nodded. "Okay, get ready to jump in." He turned to the computer and reached for his backpack, which was sitting next to it. He rummaged around until he felt his D-3 and pulled it out. He held it out facing towards the computer. "Digiport, open!"

Gabumon leapt past him and into the computer, and Takeru waited a while before closing the Digiport. He turned to Miyako, and saw she still had a concerned look on her face. "I'm sure he didn't see the grades, Miyako," he assured her.

"No, that isn't it. He just seemed different. I don't know. He was acting different around us, didn't you notice?"

Takeru paused. Gabumon had seemed a little strange, and his story was odd, but exactly how much did he know about Digimon anyways? It could be perfectly normal for Gabumon to get sick in a way that only his kind does. Don't dogs get sick in a way only dogs do? And where would he find medicine for it around here, anyways? "Oh, he'll be fine. Don't worry about it."

"Are we going to wait up for him anyways?"

Takeru looked at the grade files he had put back up on the screen. "Not if you don't want to get caught with these. Besides, we aren't even supposed to be here. It's summer."

Miyako hesitated. "Good point. Oh, he knows how to get back, doesn't he?"

"Of course he does," Takeru grinned. "Oh, by the way, Michiru's grade was one point higher than yours."

Miyako grumbled and reached into her pocket for money.

~ ~ ~ ~ 

Gabumon looked around the dense forest, eyes peeled. He began walking through, his fist still clenched tightly over the Digivice. "They can be such idiots sometimes," Gabumon grumbled. He sighed to himself. "But I believe I will miss them a bit."

He couldn't help the nagging feeling in his heart that told him this was wrong and he was going to mess them a whole lot more than he wanted to admit. The feeling made him angrier. "I know what I'm doing," he assured himself, as he finally made it to the clearing he distinctly remembered from a past adventure.

He went to a pile of rocks on the forest floor and picked up the largest one he could find. He sat on the ground and set the Digivice in between his outstretched legs. He lifted the rock above his head, intent on smashing it down onto the Digivice, once and for all killing all ties to the human child known as Yamato and the rest of the Digidestined. "If I can't even stand to be around him anymore without looking at him and feeling my heart break, why should I ever look at his face again?" he asked himself, but he still found it hard to bring that rock down.

He stayed like that for a full five minutes, trying to gather the courage to destroy the Digivice, but the good in his heart insisted that he shouldn't, and he should go back and apologize.

He sighed, setting the rock down and grabbing the Digivice. "I just need some time alone to think," he decided, laying down on the ground. "I just need to think about what to do about this whole mess."

He closed his eyes and pressed his cheek harder to the cool, comforting ground. Curled up into a furry ball, he slowly fell asleep.

~ ~ ~ ~

Back in the real world, Yamato and Takeru had just woken up and were fixing up breakfast for themselves. "That was fun yesterday," Takeru said cheerfully, flipping his pancakes over.

Yamato smiled in response, but couldn't help but frown a bit. True, he had spent some quality time with the boy of his dreams, but he hadn't been able to tell him how he felt. 

Takeru saw the look on his face and sighed, setting the spatula down on the countertop. "You'll see him again tomorrow at the picnic. Maybe something better will happen there, and you'll have better luck?"

Yamato looked at him, blinking. He shook his head. "I still haven't gotten over how you seem to have telepathic abilities sometimes."

Takeru winked at him. "Only when I want to."

Yamato fully turned towards him. "Look, Takeru, I know you're only trying to help and all, but I really don't need help getting Tai and myself together."

Takeru raised an eyebrow. "Is that why you've been waiting around for the past three years for him to notice you, leap into your arms, and proclaim his undying love for you?"

Yamato grumbled and turned away from him. Takeru only laughed. "I'm only joking, Yama. If you want me and the guys to back off a little tomorrow at the picnic, just tell us, and we will."

"I thought I just did tell you," Yamato replied, giving him an annoyed look.

"Okay, okay, chill, big brother." Takeru held his hands up. "I'm not the enemy here."

Yamato sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "Sorry. I've just been in a bad mood lately, you know?"

Takeru furrowed his eyebrows in concern. "Want to talk about it?"

"I can't really pinpoint why. It's just...I don't know. Everyone has their bad days. I just have mine a little more often than other people, you know that."

Takeru nodded, flipping his pancakes over again. "Yeah, I know."

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Um, this chapter was really short because it's meant to be continued in the next chapter. Sort of like prologues aren't as long as the chapters in a story. Well, it seems that Gabumon has introduced angst into the story, and he's left me to work all of that out. Oh boy. R/R.


	5. Fluff, Angst, Fluffy Picnic, and Angst A...

A/N: Ah, got another chapter done. Hooray! This one is long. Don't you just love long chapters? Anyways, operation: Save Gabumon begins. It starts out fluffy, gets angsty, gets fluffy again, and ends somewhat angsty again. Boy, this fic is just a rollercoaster of emotions isn't it? 

**Waves to Sarah-chan** Hope your vacation wasn't too bad. Welcome back! ^-^' Anyways, here's the next chapter.

Fluff, Angst, Fluffy Picnic, and Angst Again

Miyako and Takeru lay spread out on Takeru's bed, staring up at the ceiling, yawning. They were boredly waiting for four o' clock to come, so they could head over to the park for the picnic. 

"What time is it now?" Miyako asked.

Takeru turned his head to look at the digital clock on his nightstand. He turned to look at her again. 

"Three."

"Want to get ready?"

He shrugged. "Nothing better to do."

They got up and pulled their shoes on. They went into the kitchen to see if they had the potato salad ready. 

"Yeah, all nice and packed up. We're pretty much done with the getting ready. Want to head over to someone's house in the meanwhile?"

Miyako thought awhile and smiled, nodding. "Let's go to your brother's house. He could use some company walking over."

Takeru smiled. "Good idea."

He grabbed the bowl of potato salad and stretched foil paper over it to keep it's freshness on the walk over. He turned to the living room and called Patamon and Hawkmon over. He heard the TV being turned off and wondered how they could do that if they didn't have fingers.

The orange and bird Digimon walked to them and stood there, waiting for them to open the door. 

Miyako opened the door for Takeru and he walked out, the bowl in his arms, followed by Patamon, Hawkmon, and then Miyako herself.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Watch out for the-"

"Argh!"

Crash. Koushiro sat on the floor of the kitchen, looking around him at the spilt coke cans. He glanced up at Sora, grinning apologetically and hoping she didn't think he was an idiot after this. Tentomon looked at Biyomon and sweatdropped. "His hand-eye coordination has been a little off lately."

"Uh huh," the pink bird said, though she didn't know what he was talking about. 

Sora sighed and rubbed the side of her head, holding a hand out for Koushiro. He gratefully grabbed it and she helped haul him to his feet, then bent to help him pick the cans up. "We can pick up another pack on the way over, I guess," Jyou reasoned, smiling at them both in amusement.

"Yeah, you're right, Jyou," Mimi chimed in, smiling from where she sat on the counter beside Palmon. Jyou turned to look at her and smiled back, and she thought she saw a faint blush spread across Jyou's features as he hurriedly pushed his glasses back up his nose. Gomamon rolled his eyes, thinking, 'I thought I told him to get rid of that annoying habit.'

Koushiro and Jyou got two packs of cokes each and went out the door, Mimi and Sora following them and talking to each other about this and that. The Digimon hurried out the door before it closed on them and scrambled into Jyou's truck.

The boys loaded the packs onto the back of the truck. Koushiro wiped his brow and put his hands on his hips. Jyou raised an eyebrow at him. "You have got to be kidding."  


Koushiro narrowed his eyes at his friend. "What? It's hot out."

"Uh huh. Right."

Koushiro grumbled to himself and Sora put her arm around his shoulders. "Oh come on, Kou. He's only joking."

Koushiro glanced up at her and blushed, nearly jumping away from her when he saw how close her face was to his. "Y-Yeah. Well, we better go. Get in the car, everyone."

He hurriedly got into the passenger seat. Sora blinked and looked at her still outstretched arm, and Jyou sighed and wondered if Koushiro ever had any experience at all with a crush on a girl that he saw as often as he saw Sora.

He got into the driver's seat and waited until the girls had gotten into the back seat, and he hoped that he and his friend didn't totally mess up at this picnic and make fools of themselves in front of the girls.

~ ~ ~ ~

"Tai! You almost done?!"

"Coming."

He walked into the kitchen, running a hand through his mop of hair. "Where are Agumon and Gatomon?"

"Waiting for us outside." Hikari looked over the sandwiches on the platter. She smiled to herself and clasped her hands. "Well, the food looks awesome. Should be a nice picnic."

Tai looked at his sister's face intently, raising an eyebrow. "Then why is your smile fake?"

Hikari stopped smiling and put her hands down. "You know me too well, big brother."

"It's my job."

She sighed. "You know those bad feelings I get when I think something bad's going to happen? Well, I've got one right now. I think it's about the picnic."

Taichi sat down on a chair, staring at her with surprised eyes. "Really?"

Hikari nodded slowly, placing her hands on the table in front of her, beside the sandwiches. "But I'm sure it's nothing. Sometimes I get this feeling and nothing happens at all. You know, false alarm."

Taichi nodded at her slowly, but the doubting look on his face stayed the same. Hikari sighed to herself and thought, 'He doesn't believe me.'

"Well, we better get going. No need to stay away from our picnic on account of a little bad feeling."

Taichi reluctantly stood and went to help her carry the sandwich platter. They walked to the front door and Tai opened it, and had just begun backing out of the house when Hikari looked up. "Hey, Tai?"

He looked at his sister. "Yeah?"

"Do me a favor and pretend we didn't have this talk? I don't want to ruin everyone else's fun by having you or me look gloomy or like we're waiting for a disaster."

"You mean, fake happiness?"

"I mean forget about it and actually be happy."

Taichi knew he wouldn't be able to do that now. Now that Hikari mentioned it, he had a bad feeling settling in his heart, also. He, however, smiled for his sister, trying his best to make it seem genuine. "No problem, little sister."

He would fake his happiness for her and for their friends. After all, it wouldn't be the first time. He had done it before.

~ ~ ~ ~

Yamato was searching through his house everywhere. He had checked all of his favorite places, and still he had yet to find Gabumon. 

"Gabumon!" he called yet again. "It's time for the picnic! Didn't you come home last night?!"

He tried to think of seeing his partner all the previous day, and he was just now realizing that he hadn't seen him. He grabbed the sides of his head, breathing deeply. 

'Stay calm, Ishida. This isn't the first time Gabumon has gone out exploring or whatever, but he usually does come back the next day.'

The doorbell rang. Instantly, the thought of Gabumon reached his mind and he smiled widely. Then, common sense kicked in and he cringed. Gabumon couldn't ring a doorbell. He didn't even have fingers!

He sighed as he trudged to the door and yanked it open. He was less than happy to see Takeru's and Miyako's brilliantly smiling faces and their own digimon safe in their arms. 

"Hello, Yamato! We were just...wonder...ing..." Takeru trailed off as he took in Yamato's untidy appearance. His brother never allowed himself to be this bedraggled. "Yamato? What's wrong?"

"I can't find Gabumon anywhere," he replied, leaning against the wall and shutting his eyes wearily. "I've been searching all morning."

Takeru and Miyako looked at each other, seeming worried. Miyako turned to Yamato. "You mean, you didn't send him to the Digital World yesterday?"

Yamato looked up at her, eyebrows furrowed. "Digital World? What are you talking about?"

Takeru fell against the doorway, staring at the ground worriedly. "He...he came to our school the other day and went into the computer room. We were there...doing stuff, and Gabumon told us that you sent him to go into the Digital World for medication or something."

"What?" Yamato asked, sounding very surprised. "I did no such thing!"

Takeru covered his face in his hands. "He had something in his paw, clenched tightly. I didn't ask about it because I didn't want it to seem like I didn't trust him, but I think it looked sort of like a Digivice."

Yamato's eyes went wide. "And you let him into the Digiworld?"

Miyako nodded, hanging her head and feeling ashamed, even though it really wasn't her fault.

Yamato turned and ran back into his room, shakily opening all of his drawers and throwing things around. "Where did I put it? I know it put it in here somewhere. I just know it."

He paused. "Wait, I remember. I put it in the last drawer, in the very back."

He tore open the last drawer and searched it thoroughly, but he didn't find anything. With a squeal of frustration he fell back onto the floor, staring up, eyes wide and mind frantically searching for a clue as to why Gabumon would do such a thing. 

He had seemed a little depressed lately, especially since the day he told him he was going to break up with Koushiro. But why would that affect him so deeply? Why would it make him go off into the Digiworld alone, and with Yamato's digivice?

Without the digivice, Gabumon wouldn't be able to digivolve, because it would be out of Yamato's hands. Didn't Gabumon know how dangerous wandering the Digiworld with the digivice would be? What if it got broken?

Yamato gasped. What if it got broken? Would Yamato...would Gabumon...not be Yamato's partner anymore? He had to find him. "Let's go to the Digiworld."

"What? Yamato, we can't. Today's the picnic-"  


"Screw the picnic!" Yamato paced the floor. "How could you think of the stupid picnic at a time like this? 

Gabumon is out there in the Digiworld somewhere with my Digivice. We have to save him! What if there's a new threat to the Digiworld and it's brainwashed Gabumon?"

"Yama, you're being irrational."

"I am not!" he growled at Miyako.

She yelped and took a step back, and Takeru got defensive. "Hey, she didn't do anything to you."

"She let Gabumon enter the Digiworld!"

"Well, so did I. And besides, it totally wasn't our fault! We thought he was going to go get medicine."

"Medicine? How could you believe that? What are you, totally stupid?"

"Yamato, you're freaking out. Try to calm down. We will find Gabumon...later. Let's at least make an appearance at the picnic. Besides, it'll make more sense if we all go to the Digiworld as a team. We can reschedule the picnic for some other day. Would that make you feel better?"

Yamato bit his nails, rubbing his side. "I guess so. So what are we waiting for? Let's go!"

~ ~ ~ ~

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, hold on. Let me get this straight. Gabumon took your Digivice and went into the Digital World all on his own for no apparent reason? And now we have to ditch our food and our stuff to go into the Digital World to get him back?" Tai asked.

Yamato, Takeru, and Miyako nodded. "So can we go now?" Yamato asked for the thousandth time.

"You know, Yamato," Koushiro said, typing at his computer, "it's highly unlikely that Gabumon is going to run into any trouble over there. He knows the Digiworld better than we do, and he knows what he's doing and where he's going. I'm sure he's just fine. I think we should wait and see if he comes back today. If he doesn't, we'll go into the Digiworld tomorrow and try to find him."

He glanced up and paled slightly when he saw Yamato's enraged face. "Ya-Yamato?"

"We are not just dumping Gabumon over there and leaving him there overnight!"

"But we aren't dumping him there, he's already there. Please, calm down Yamato, you'll bust a nerve," Ken snapped.

Yamato turned to him, fists raised, and Daisuke quickly stepped in front of Ken. "Yama, please, we're all worried about Gabumon, but can we please just have our picnic like we were supposed to and just go through with Koushiro's plan?"

Yamato put his head in his hands and shut his eyes. "I need to be alone to think." He turned and walked away from his friends, walking past the picnic they had just set up when Yamato, Takeru, and Miyako arrived. He didn't even glance up as he went off across the park to the swingset on the very end.

The other Digidestined all watched him walk away and were reminded of a time, long before, when the boy left them all for an even longer time, only that time, with Gabumon with him. Taichi was the one who felt most hurt by that, a long time ago, and seeing his best friend and secret love walk away from him like that in such a horrible mood, he felt his heart break once again. He slowly began to walk after Yamato.

'I won't let you walk away from me this time, Yamato,' Tai thought. 'This time I'm going to stick right by you and make sure that I never lose you again.' 

Yamato reached the swingset and sat down on a swing, slowly placing his arms in his lap and staring down at them helplessly, trying to figure out what to do. He knew he was being irrational, but he couldn't help but think this was all his fault. Gabumon did take the Digivice as well, after all. 

Yamato saw a pair of feet enter his field of vision and slowly brought his eyes up the body the feet belonged to, finally looking into the concerned chocolate brown eyes of his best friend. "Tai," he whispered, feeling his heart grow warm, but instantly shook it off. "I thought I said I needed to be alone," he heard himself snapping. 

Taichi told himself that Yamato was only in a bad mood, and he didn't mean to be snapping at him like that. He knelt in front of Yamato and took the blonde's hand in his. Yamato's instant reaction was to pull his hand away, but he didn't want to make it seem like he was disgusted with Tai's holding his hand, so he let it pass.

"Yamato," Taichi said, looking him straight in the eye, "the last time I heard you say you needed to be alone, I didn't see you for another few days. You left, and my heart broke. All of us had our hearts broken after that. After, you know, you fought us. We all separated after that. I won't let that happen again. I won't let you just walk away, because I need you here with me, and I know somehow that you need me to be with you, somewhere in your heart. So will you please just let me, and everyone else, be with you? We won't let you leave us again like that. It hurt enough the first time."

Yamato's eyes were wide by this time. He hadn't even remembered the hurtful acts against his friends so many years ago in the Digital World. He shut his eyes, cursing himself for making them all hurt again. 

"I'm sorry, Tai. I forgot about that."

"Don't be sorry if you don't really mean it," Tai muttered, looking down.

Yamato looked up sharply and brought his hand up to Tai's chin, tilting it up again so he could look him in the eye. "Hey. I do mean it, alright? I really am sorry for causing you all to feel like this. For back then, and for right now. For what just happened back there. I know I had no reason to snap at you all, and I just want to apologize."

Tai smiled weakly. "Then maybe you should apologize to the rest of them, too," he suggested.

Yamato instantly stood, startling Taichi into falling back onto the ground. "So, are we going back to our friends, or what?" Yamato asked, smiling again.

Taichi laughed and stood up. "Finally, Yamato Ishida is back with us."

Yamato smiled and walked with him back towards their friends to have a nice picnic on an equally nice day. As the Digidestined all looked up from their individual thoughts, they all began to cheer when they saw Yamato and Taichi were still holding hands, and Yamato had a smile back on his face.

"So are we going to have a picnic or what?" Tai asked, reaching up to snap his goggles the way he always did, but finding nothing but his hair. 

He remembered that it was several years after those years and instantly reached over to snap Daisuke's goggles on his head. Daisuke leapt a foot into the air. "Hey!"

Taichi grinned at him. "It's ritual, man. No hard feelings."

Daisuke looked puzzled, and all of the older Digidestined, and Takeru and Hikari, laughed.

~ ~ ~ ~

Yamato stuffed his face with his fourth sandwich, happy to be able to get Gabumon off of his mind. He had come to understand their plan and agreed with Koushiro. They would head over to the Digiworld the first thing tomorrow.

"Dude, pace yourself or something," Taichi said, smiling at the blonde. "You're eating even faster than I am."

Yamato blushed and wiped his mouth. "It's just that, I realized how hungry I am, you know?"

"Worrying does that to you," Miyako said from across the table, smiling. Takeru nodded sagely beside her. 

Yamato couldn't help but think of how girly Takeru was and how odd it was that he was straight. Takeru loved to gossip, loved to shop, squealed, giggled, and knew as much about fashion as Miyako. He hoped it was only Miyako rubbing off on him.

"Well, *everything* makes *me* hungry," Daisuke responded, reaching for his fifth sandwich. Ken sighed and slid down in his chair beside his boyfriend, stuffed from his third sandwich and shaking his head in wonderment at Daisuke's unbelievably large appetite.

"If my calculations are correct, Daisuke has the appetite of a wooly mammoth," Koushiro said, smirking.

"Oh, Koushiro, you're so smart," said Iori from across the table, resting his chin in his hands and staring intently at Koushiro in front of him. Koushiro blinked a few times and raised an eyebrow at the younger boy.

"Er, thanks."

Jyou and Mimi laughed behind their hands, and Koushiro narrowed his eyes at them. But then Sora laughed also, and Koushiro smiled at her, suddenly thinking it was okay to laugh at him, and he began to laugh himself.

This, of course, sent Jyou and Mimi off laughing even harder than ever. It was so unbelievably obvious, and yet Sora didn't have a clue.

Meanwhile, Taichi was telling everyone a dirty joke. As soon as he was done, all of them were having difficulty breathing and some were just flat out on the floor and falling off of their chairs in fits of laughter. Yep, it was a good picnic.

"That," Yamato gasped, wiping his eye, "was just priceless."

Taichi grinned. "Thank you."

All the way on the other end of the table, the digimon were all having a little picnic of their own. They were talking about Gabumon's disappearance.

"So, you noticed differences in Gabumon's attitude?" Tentomon asked.

Agumon and Gatomon nodded. "At the last Digidestined meeting. He seemed really depressed. Didn't you notice he didn't come over to where we were and just stuck by Yamato instead?" Agumon asked.

"I noticed that," Hawkmon said, sighing. "But why would he be so sad about Yamato's news?"

"I think I know," Patamon said sadly. They all turned to look at him. "I've been hanging out with Gabumon a lot in the past, since TK and Yamato are always hanging out together. He told me a secret that he made me promise never to tell anyone, but I think it's going to help us understand. But you can't tell your human partners, this has to be between us all," he whispered. 

They all gathered closer around him, and Patamon blushed slightly at the sudden attention, and lowered his voice even more, the humans having their picnic right next to them. "Gabumon really loved Yamato. I mean, really, totally, completely head-over-heels in love with him. He swooned when he talked about him, he gushed about him to me all the time. When he found out Yamato was going to ask Koushiro out, he didn't know it was because he saw Tai walking Sora to class once and he knew Sora liked Tai and thought Tai liked Sora back. He thought Yamato really did like Koushiro. So, he started getting sad. I told him it wouldn't last, and sure enough, it didn't. But when Gabu found out that Yamato was in love with Taichi, and he knew that Taichi loved him back, he went into total depression. He didn't even want to eat anymore, and you know how much we digimon love to eat. I think that's why he went to the Digiworld. He both wanted to see if Yamato really wanted him around anymore by testing him to see if he would go after him, and he also wanted to be totally alone to think things completely through. That's why he took the Digivice, so that Yamato would *have* to go in after him. That's why he didn't tell any of us about it. So that maybe only Yamato and Yamato alone would go after him, and none of us and the rest of the Digidestined."

The other Digimon looked shocked at how much Patamon really knew about the whole mess, and some couldn't help but feel a little angry that he had kept this all from all of them, but they all knew that it was too late now to get mad, Gabumon was already gone. 

"So you mean, this time, Yamato has to go alone? But he won't have a Digimon to protect him!"

"If we ever want to gain Gabumon's friendship again, it has to be this way. Yamato going against all odds just to save Gabumon will finally once and for all prove to Gabu that Yamato does love and care for him, even if it isn't the same love he has for Tai. He feels like Yamato doesn't need him anymore with Tai around, and Yamato going in to save him alone will show that he really and truly needs Gabumon back with him in the real world."

"How do we explain this to Sora and the others?" Biyomon asked.

"We just have to tell them that we know what's up and we can't tell them, but Yamato has to go alone, and just go along with it. They'll trust us, since we know everything about what's going on."

"But what if something happens to Yamato?"

"Do you really think Gabu will let him get hurt? He's going to watch out for Yamato, and when Yamato enters the Digiworld, Gabumon's going to know. He has the Digivice. All we need to do is send Yamato over with someone else's Digivice, alone, and Gabumon will find him easily and quickly. He knows the Digiworld best out of all of us. Remember, he's part-wolf, so he loves to roam."

"So, we send Yama over, Gabu goes to find him, and forgives him just like that?"

"Knowing Gabu as well as I do, yes. That will be proof enough, just seeing that Yamato went in there alone, with no protection, just to save him. And Gabumon will definitely be there in a second if there's any sign of trouble, with the Digivice, so he'll be able to Digivolve."

"Geez, Patamon, you have everything figured out, don't you?"

"Since the day Gabumon started looking sad, I've sort of been researching. After getting all the info on Gabu earlier today from Matt, especially when I found out he took the Digivice, I sat down to think, and everything just clicked. I guess it's the bond I have with him. He's my best friend, besides TK."

The digimon all looked in awe at the amount of information Patamon had provided them with. It was just all so much in so little time. "So what are we waiting for?" Agumon asked, getting up. "Let's go tell them and get Yamato over there right now!"

~ ~ ~ ~

"I am not letting Yamato go alone, forget about it!" Taichi formed fists with his hands. "I'm going along with him."

He had not been pleased at all with this new change of plan in the Gabumon-rescue.

"Tai, please, you don't know all of it. I'll explain everything to you after we get Gabumon back safely. In fact, he'll probably tell you all himself, but *please* just listen to us and follow our plan."

"Yeah, Tai," Yamato said. The minute the digimon had told him what he had to do, he had been all for it. Anything to get Gabumon. "I'll be just fine. All I need is your Digivice, so please, hand it over."

Taichi didn't stop the grip on his own Digivice, holding it to his chest. "You have to promise me that Yamato will be totally safe in there."

"Gabumon won't let him get hurt, don't worry. Just give him the Digivice," Agumon pleaded, his eyes shimmering with tears knowing that every second wasted in carrying out this plan was a second closer to losing Gabumon's friendship.

Taichi sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "If anything happens, anything at all, come back over here, okay, Yamato?" he asked, slowly handing the Digivice over. 

Yamato took the Digivice in his hand and smiled, hugging Taichi tightly. "I promise I will, Tai. Don't worry, it'll be fine. I'll be back with Gabumon soon."

Taichi hugged back, digging his hands into Yamato's back, not wanting to let go. He didn't want this to be the last time he ever saw Yamato. They were already at the school, in front of the computer, Takeru ready with his D-3 to open the Digiport. "Ready?" he asked. 

The two boys separated and Taichi wiped his eyes, Yamato turning to face his brother. "Ready."

"Digiport open!"

Yamato instantly ran towards the computer and began to feel himself tingle as he was sent over into the Digiworld.

The other Digidestined watched helplessly as their blonde friend slowly dematerialized in front of their 

eyes, and they all hugged each other for comfort, wondering how long it would be before they saw their friend and his digimon again.

Soon, Yamato was gone. The plan was now into action. Patamon was hanging onto TK for dear life, hoping to death that his calculations were not wrong, because if anything happened to Yamato...anything went wrong with their plan...he didn't want to think about it.

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Dun dun dunnnnn. Hehe, cliffhanger! This chapter was longer than my other chapters. Wooh, let's see, now we got another little plot inside the big plot. Going to save Gabumon. Will Taichi be able to tell Yamato he loves him when he returns? *If* he returns? Or was Patamon wrong? Find out in the next exciting chapter of Digidestined Cupids! 

Ikky: Just like a commercial.

Thank you, thank you. **Bows**


	6. Operation: Save Gabumon

A/N: I bet you were all just dying for this chapter. **Crickets sound, someone coughs** Well, I was. Anyways, I bet you all know what this chapter is about. Operation: Save Gabumon. Double-o seven agent Ishida Yamato goes in for the rescue mission. Haha...ha. You probably want to read the fic now. Okay, I'll shut up. **goes and stands dejectedly in the corner**

Er, this is the last chapter, BTW. And, uh, there's implied sex. And, uh, yeah. And yes, relationships are solved, don't worry. Well, read on!

Operation: Save Gabumon

Yamato entered the Digiworld in an unfamiliar part of it. He looked around at the forest and rubbed his arms, suddenly feeling helpless without Gabumon there to protect him. He suddenly hesitated. 'Was I supposed to stay put and wait for Gabumon to find me or wander around looking for him?' he wondered. He cringed. "I should have gotten all of the information before plunging into action," he grumbled to himself, dragging his hand down the side of his face.

After hearing what he had to do, he was all for it and marching to the school before any of them had taken in the information and the fact that he had already begun walking. "Oh well, might as well stay put. It'll be easier for him to find me, anyways," Yamato reasoned, sitting down on a rock and pulling his legs up onto it. He began the long process of waiting for Gabumon to find him. Ten minutes later, he sighed, pulling at his pant leg. 'He better get here soon,' he thought to himself. 'I'll bore myself to death.'

~ ~ ~ ~

Gabumon heard the Digivice beeping and glanced down at it, surprised to see one light bleeping at him, not too far away from where he was standing. He had just woken up from his sleep about an hour before and had found a river to drink water from. 'Is that...Yamato?' he wondered, feeling his heart slowly begin to mend itself a bit at the thought, but not much.

His eyes went wide. 'He's all alone? What in the world does he think he's doing, coming in here all alone? He better have someone else's Digimon there with him.'

He sighed. 'Well, might as well go and at least talk to him, if he made the effort to come and look for me.'

He slowly got up from the riverside and began walking towards the little dot on the Digivice's screen.

~ ~ ~ ~

Yamato was now lying down, spread out on the rock, nearly pulling his hair out in boredom. He sighed yet again, wondering if maybe Gabumon dropped the Digivice or forgot it somewhere, and didn't even know he was there in the Digiworld. "This totally sucks," Yamato muttered, rolling over again. Suddenly, there was rustling in the bushes to the side.

He leapt up on the rock, immediately bringing his fists up in front of him in a defensive position, legs spread out. He looked all around him, as if daring whoever was there to come to him. "Gabumon?" he called, angry when he heard fear in his own voice. "Gabumon?" he called again, and this time there was no fear.

There was no answer. He stood like that for awhile before calming down and resting on the rock again. He kept his eyes peeled for movement in the bushes, glancing all around him, ready to leap up and fight or flight if there was a threat.

He had just closed his eyes when he heard a growl from the bushes and leapt up again so fast that he fell off of the rock. He crashed onto the ground and groaned when his head hit the side of the rock. He slowly sat up and rubbed his head, shaking the pain off and staring hard at the bushes that were now certainly rustling. Out from the bushes stepped a very angry-looking Leomon. "Who are you?" he asked roughly.

Yamato stood and felt his heart pounding in his chest. "I'm...Yamato," he replied, wishing frantically that Gabumon would hurry up and find him soon.

"You're in my territory."

"Wha-what?"

"This is my territory. I'd appreciate it if you got out of here before I slice you up."

"Yes sir, right, I'm leaving now."

He turned and got ready to run in the opposite direction.

"Wait a minute."

Yamato paused in his step and slowly turned to face the Leomon. "Yes?"

"You're one of those Digidestined kids. The ones that destroyed Devimon a long time ago."

Yamato nodded slowly. "Yes, I'm one of them."

The Leomon walked up to him, and he relaxed. He remembered how the Leomon they had encountered along their journey so long ago was so against Devimon and had helped them. He was in no danger.

Suddenly, Leomon leapt at him, knocking him off of the rock and onto the floor. Yamato got the breath knocked out of him and doubled over, coughing. He straightened himself as best as he could and saw that Leomon was glaring at him, eyes narrowed and lips curled back in a snarl.

"What the-"

He answer was choked off by Leomon's grip on his neck. He frantically beat at Leomon's arm. He wished for Gabumon to be there, soon. He really wanted Gabumon there with him right then.

"Yamato!"

His eyes flew open. Was that...Gabumon's voice? Suddenly, Leomon let go of his neck and he could breath again. He quickly crawled out from under Leomon while he was distracted. He coughed a few times and looked up to see Gabumon gripping onto Leomon's back by his claws, biting furiously at his shoulder. Leomon was trying to reach back to pry Gabumon off. He finally got his arm behind himself and grabbed Gabumon, throwing him off and onto the floor.

Gabumon let out a cry of pain and immediately stood up, ready for action again. "Gabumon, you have to digivolve!" Yamato screamed. Gabumon nodded at him and tossed him his Digivice. He shoved Tai's Digivice into his pocket and gripped his own in his hand. It began to glow.

"Gabumon digivolve to...Garurumon!"

Garurumon leapt at Leomon and Yamato watched helplessly from the sidelines as he watched Garurumon battle Leomon. They were kicking, biting, clawing, and throwing attacks at each other, trying to get the other to surrender. Yamato knew that Garurumon would never surrender. Not so easily.

It wasn't until fifteen horribly long minutes had passed that Leomon finally retreated, beaten bloody and barely able to walk. Garurumon collapsed onto the floor, breathing hard. Yamato scurried over to him, throwing his arms around his digimon's neck and feeling tears flow down his cheeks.

"You saved my life!" he cried into Garurumon's soft fur. 

"Of course I did," Garurumon answered in a deep, almost purring voice. "I couldn't let you get hurt."

Yamato smiled weakly and pointed to his head, which was bleeding a bit on the side. "A little late for that. And I can't breathe quite right...it hurts."

Garurumon slowly dedigivolved back into Gabumon and hung his head. "I'm sorry for making you come to the Digiworld like this. It was all for my own pleasure, some stupid test. I just didn't think you wanted me anymore. I know it's stupid, because I know that you care about me. You're just...I was jealous, you know? Taichi stole your heart so easily, and I..." Gabumon trailed off, unable to finish, as he dug his head into Yamato's chest. "I'm no match for him."

Yamato smiled and stroked Gabumon's bloody fur. "Gabu, we need to get back to the real world and treat our wounds right now. We'll have a nice, long talk when we get back, okay? And listen to me," he tilted Gabumon's head up, "Taichi will never be able to take your place as my partner. I do love him, but I love you, too, in a special, human-digimon way."

Gabumon smiled, nuzzling Yamato's neck. "Then that will just have to be enough for me."

"I'm afraid so. Well, we best be heading back. I don't want Leomon to come back with five of his friends."

"No, we definitely don't want that." 

~ ~ ~ ~  


"Hold still!"

"I'm trying to! It's not my fault it hurts so damn much."

Taichi smiled and shook his head. "You're really something, Ishida."

Taichi held a rag to the side of Yamato's head, trying to clean up the wound. When he was done cleaning it, he bandaged his head up, with much protesting on Yamato's part because it would mess up his hair. Sora and Hikari were busy being Gabumon's nurses, and everyone was looking a whole lot less worried than they were about half an hour before.

Patamon had glomped Gabumon the instant they reappeared in the computer room, and didn't even let go when Gabumon yelped in pain. TK had to pry him off. He calmed down after about five minutes, but he still hung around Sora and Hikari saying how glad he was that Gabumon was back and to never, ever, ever do that again, despite it being incredibly obvious that he never would.

"Because we were really, *really* worried about you, Gabu!" Patamon reminded him.

Gabumon groaned. "Yes, I know, I know. I heard you the first gazillion times. I made a stupid mistake, I'm back, I'm paying for it-ow-you did that on purpose, Hikari!"

"Did not! And don't ever call yourself stupid."

"Okay, okay, I made a brilliant mistake. Ow!"

"No one likes a rude mouth."

Gabumon rolled his eyes. He remembered something he wanted to talk to Hikari about, and politely asked Sora and Patamon to leave so he could privately talk to her.

"Why won't you just stop keeping it a secret, Hikari?" Gabumon gingerly asked her after Sora and Patamon had inched away to give them time to speak to each other. "Your crush, I mean."

"I'm just...not ready."

"But..."

"Please, Gabu. It was bad enough when you found out. Who knows how you found out? Probably from Gatomon."

Gabumon didn't reply. Hikari sighed. "If Gatomon didn't have a crush on you, you wouldn't know."

"Oh, so now it's her fault?"

"No, I didn't say that."

"You implied it."

"You know, you're too smart."

"Thank you."

Hikari sat next to him, now having covered Gabumon from head to toe in bandages. "I don't know. I think, first I have to help Taichi and Yamato get together, and maybe Koushiro and Sora, and then I'll be able to work on my own love life."

"Hikari, you're always putting other people before you." Gabumon smiled. "Maybe you should do *yourself* a favor just this once?"

"I don't know. Maybe. I, oh, I don't know!" she said again, rubbing her head.

"Who knows about this crush, again?"

"Just Tai, Yamato, you, Gatomon, Agumon, and Daisuke."

"Daisuke knows?"

"Yeah...forced it out of me, sort of. Wait a minute, why do you want to know?"

"Oh...no reason."

"No, I know what you're going to do! You're going to get all of them together and make me tell the person I like that I like them!"

"Would you do it on your own, Hikari?"

She hesitated. "Probably not during this century. Please, Gabu, don't?"

He held his chin in his hand, looking thoughtful. "Please?" she tried again.

"I'll think about withdrawing my plan."  


She sighed, knowing that was the best she was going to get out of him.

"I hate you, you know."

"No, you don't."

"I know. But it sounded appropriate for the situation, don't you think?"

Gabumon sighed and patted her head, and she put her head in her hands. "I'm hopeless, aren't I?"

"Maybe just a little."

~ ~ ~ ~

"And that's the whole story."

Gabumon nodded slowly and hugged Patamon yet again. "Thanks again, for knowing everything, and for saving me. I really would have preferred if Yamato had gone to save me of his own free will, though, and that he himself would have figured it all out."

"With the mood Yamato was in, there was no way it could have clicked, he was way too pissed off and paranoid." Taichi carefully ignored Yamato's glare at that comment and went on, "But he would have gone in after you anyways, not caring about what would happen to him, only caring about you. He totally had a breakdown after you left, Gabu. He was really worried about you."

Yamato's eyes softened, and Gabumon hugged him tightly. He broke his gaze to look down at Gabumon and smile, hugging him back. 

"Is it true, Yama? Were you really having a breakdown?"

Yamato laughed. "Not my choice of words, but yeah, I guess."

All of the Digidestined had a collective sigh, and the digimon all cheered at the two friends reuniting so well. After they had told them about the Leomon they all looked worried, but Yamato assured them that he was easy enough to handle for Garurumon. 

"Aw, he was a piece of cake," Gabumon responded. Yamato promptly beat him over the head with a pillow.

"Well he was," Gabumon laughed, after shoving the pillow off of him.

Taichi turned to Yamato and hugged him tightly. Yamato blushed and slowly brought his arms up to hug Taichi back. "I was so worried after you left, Yama. I didn't know if I'd ever see you again, or anything."

Yamato smiled gently and tilted his chin up to look into Taichi's eyes. "Hey, come on, when has a bad digimon ever been able to defeat me?"

"But you didn't have Gabumon, and what if-"

"It doesn't matter anymore, Tai. It's over now. I'm here, I'm safe, I have Gabumon back. I'm happy."

Taichi was about to reply when he realized that all of the other Digidestined and digimon had somehow left the room during all of this. He blinked and slowly smiled, shaking his head. 

Yamato saw the smile and shake of his head. "What?"

"Huh? Oh, nothing. It's just that everyone left the room."

Yamato looked up and noticed, in slight surprise, he was right. They were left alone in the room. The door was even closed and everything. Yamato laughed, shaking his head. 

"All part of the plan, I'm sure."

"What plan?"

Yamato's eyes suddenly went wide. Oops. "Um, never mind."

Taichi sat up. "No, what plan?"

"It's just that..." he sighed and ran a hand through his hair. Now or never. "The guys all got together to sort of plot how to get us together, the day after Koushiro and I broke up. That's all."

Taichi's eyes went wide. 'He's going to hit me,' Yamato thought darkly.

"The girls did that for me, too."

'What?' "Er, what?"

"So then all of the Digidestined were in on it. Scheming little..." he paused. "Wait a minute. If they got together to help you plot...then that means..."

Yamato stared at him. "You mean, all this time..."

"We liked each other?"

They stared at each other, and both began laughing. 

"I can't believe this," Taichi said, running a hand through his hair. "All this time, they were trying to make us see that this was a group effort. They were trying to get us to admit our crushes to each other."

"And it never worked."

"But now, we're alone, and it's out in the open."

"And it wasn't even that hard."

They blinked at each other, and Taichi's eyes flicked down to Yamato's lips. He glanced back up into Yamato's eyes and saw that Yamato's eyes had sort of hazed over. "Um, Yama, this sort of goes unsaid, and it's probably blatantly obvious to you, but I'd feel better just saying it. I love you, Yamato."

Yamato closed his eyes and leaned forward to press his lips against Taichi's. As he felt Taichi open his mouth to his, he mentally sighed in bliss as he gently pressed his tongue forward to do what he'd always just dreamed of doing, night after night. 

As he felt Taichi's own tongue brush against his, he wondered about all of this lost time that he'd always debated telling Taichi how he felt because he was so sure the boy was straight. He couldn't help but mentally laugh at that. They could have gotten this over with years ago, but instead, it's happening now, the night that Yamato nearly dies saving his digimon partner over the very thing happening right now.

He felt Taichi gently push him down onto the bed and push his own body down against his and he groaned, bringing one leg up to wrap around Taichi's. He suddenly felt like he was missing something and broke the passionate kiss. 

"Um, Tai?"

"Yeah?" Taichi asked, his voice thick.

"I forgot. I love you, too, Taichi."

Taichi laughed. "Yeah, I sort of figured that when you kissed me. Now, kiss me again."

Yamato reached up to pull the brunette back down and rolled over to be on top of him. Yamato ran his fingers up under Taichi's shirt, over his stomach and chest, up and down his sides. Taichi reached up to pull Yamato's shirt off and Yamato shrugged it off for him, tossing it aside. He pulled Taichi's shirt up off of his head and was surprised when it got over his hair fairly easy.

"Hey, your hair is soft."

"Um, yeah."

Yamato ran his fingers through it in wonderment. Taichi watched him, blinking. "Um, Yamato, can we get back to-"

"Your hair is *really* soft, Taichi."

"Yes, I know, Yamato. It's sort of *my* hair, of course I'd know."

Yamato continued to play with it. "Uh, Yama? Can we just-"

"What shampoo do you use?"

"Yamato!"  


"What?"

"Kiss me, damnit!"

"Oh, sorry."

He leant down and Taichi caught him in a fierce kiss. Yamato made a mental note to tease Taichi whenever he could, because he kissed better afterwards. He pulled away once more.

"No, seriously, what shampoo do you use?"

Taichi sighed. "Herbal Essences. I don't use any other hair products. It's naturally soft. I don't know how it gets its shape. Are you satisfied now?"

"Yeah, geez, you don't have to get bitchy."

"Ya-ma-tooo!"

Yamato laughed and rubbed his leg up in between Taichi's legs, moving gently. Taichi tilted his head back and moaned. "Better?"

Taichi nodded wordlessly. "Okay, made it all better." Yamato hopped off only to be grabbed from behind by Taichi and thrown onto the bed. 

"My turn?" he asked as Taichi hurriedly fumbled with his zipper. 

"Yeah."

"My, my, are you horny, dear Taichi?"

"Yeah."

"Hmm, okay."

They then continued on, this time with no more teasing by Yamato. I'd explain it, but I can't write lemon. Anyways, about an hour later, Taichi and Yamato lay in bed, their clothes thrown around the room, Taichi's boxers hanging over the lampshade. Taichi lay awake, staring in wonder at his new lover. He ran a hand through his own hair and noted happily that it really *was* very soft. 

Yamato was asleep, tired out after the previous hour's activities. Taichi glanced up at the clock on the bedside table and smiled when he saw it was already nine o' clock. "I guess Yama's sleeping over," he thought, smiling. He remembered that they weren't the only ones in the house and decided to get up out of bed. He pulled his boxers off of the lampshade and pulled them on, pulling then his jeans and his shirt on and carefully opening the door. He closed it after him and began walking to his sister's room. On the way over, he passed the living room, and was surprised to see Miyako and Takeru on the couch, sleeping curled up with each other, Jyou, Koushiro, Mimi, and Sora on the floor, watching TV, and their digimon all eating popcorn. He noted that Koushiro had his arm around Sora's shoulders and was kissing the side of her neck as she giggled.

"You're all still here?" he asked.

Koushiro looked up and laughed.

"What?"

"Your hair is quite messy, Tai. Even more so than usual. And I must say, I never got the chance to see for myself how incredibly loud Yamato is in bed. Hmm, too bad. Oh well, now I know."

Taichi's face was now a very bright red.

"You guys...heard?"

They all nodded, smiling. "Don't worry, it'll be the Digidestined's secret," Sora assured him, but she burst out laughing on Koushiro's shoulder anyways. 

"Yeah, you may have traumatized the digimon, though," Jyou added, laughing at the looks on all of the digimon's faces. Their eyes were still wide.

"When did you guys get together?" Tai asked Koushiro and Sora, changing the subject.

"When we heard Yamato screaming in pleasure. It sort of turned me on and I started kissing her and for some reason she started kissing back, which lead to me confessing I liked her and her saying I was a good kisser, so she decided to say yes to going out with me." 

Taichi muttered something about having to go and backed out of the room and went to Hikari's room. There, he found Hikari, Iori, Daisuke, Ken, Gatomon, Agumon, Armadillomon, Veemon, and Wormmon all watching Hikari and Daisuke play her Playstation.

"Er, everyone's still here," he said slowly.

Hikari looked up at him, blushed, and looked back at the TV again. "You've embarrassed me, brother," Hikari informed him.

Daisuke looked up at him only to wink before looking back down at their game.

"We're only twelve, you know, we're at a very impressionable age," Ken informed him. Taichi groaned and rubbed the side of his head. 

"Are you all ever going to stop teasing us about that?"

"Probably not," responded Daisuke.

Iori was staring at him, wide-eyed. He remembered Iori was only ten and sighed even louder.

"Okay, I'm sorry for, um, traumatizing you all, but you had to learn *some* way or another."

Iori continued to stare wordlessly.

"Though, yeah, an older age would have been more appropriate for you to hear that."

"You're only fifteen, Tai! How could you do something like that! What if our parents find out?"

Hikari continued to nag at Taichi while staring at the video game and Taichi let it all bounce off of him as he backed out of the room and down the hall. 'Age doesn't matter when you're in love,' he reminded himself, and smiled as he went back into his room. He got back under the covers next to Yamato and closed his eyes. 

'They'll get over it.'

~ ~ ~ ~

Ten minutes later, Hikari waited in the dining room for her crush to come through the door. She stared out the window, knowing that her crush was going to be totally and completely shocked, but knowing that Gabumon was right. She had to get it out sooner or later. She had sent Daisuke to go find her crush and tell him to meet her there, since Daisuke knew and all. 

She heard the door open and turned to face him, and she smiled gently as she patted the chair next to her. 

"Hikari?" He slowly went up to her and sat on the chair. "You wanted to talk to me?"

She nodded, looking down at him due to his being shorter than her. She knew that would be somewhat of a problem for them if they started going out, but she was willing to deal with it. 

"I have something to confess," she admitted, and cleared her throat as she nervously shifted in her chair. 

"You know Taichi and Yamato confessed their love to each other tonight?" 

"Yeah."

"Well, now it's my turn."

He continued to stare at her, having no idea what she was talking about. She sighed. "Do I have to draw a map?"

"Why, Hikari, why would you need to do that?"

"It's a figure of speech."

"Oh. What sort of figure?"

"Never mind. Look, I've been meaning to tell you this for such a long time, and I can't hide it anymore. I...I have to tell you before I burst or something."

"That would be ugly."

"What?"

"You bursting. Stuff everywhere!"

"Um, ew?"

"You said it, not me."

"Can't you be serious for a while?"

"...why would I be serious?"

"Because this is a serious matter."

"Oh. Sorry. It's just, I don't really do serious."

"I know, that's why I like you. You're so funny!"

Hikari smiled and then gasped. She covered her mouth with her hand.

"Thanks, Hikari!" he replied happily, completely oblivious to the confession that just slipped past her lips.

"I just confessed to you."

"Why? Were you the one that hid my box of chocolates?"

"No."  


"Oh. Because I still can't find it, you know. It's just...it's gone."

"Yeah, I see."

"As in poof, vanished, you know?"

"Um, yeah. Er, can I finish?"

"Uh, sure."

She sighed and rubbed her temples. This was going to be harder than she thought.

~ ~ ~ ~

Ten minutes later, Hikari was still trying to confess her love. 

"So you see, we ended up running in circles, and we found out that it wasn't even a bear! Isn't that strange? Um, Hikari? Hello?"

Hikari shook herself back awake. "Huh? Oh, yeah. Funny. Haha."

He smiled brightly at her. "Now, what is it that you wanted to confess? You never confessed it, you know."

"I know. I would have, had you let me."

"How was I not letting you?"

"By carrying the conversation off somewhere else."

"Well, I've been known to do that a lot. It annoys the heck out of-"

He paused, realizing that Hikari was bending down and staring directly into his eyes. Her soft brown eyes stared hard into his green eyes, and he blinked.

"Is there something on my face?"

She leant down and softly kissed his lips. He stared at her for a long time. And then, he promptly fell off of his chair. It took her a while before she opened her eyes and realized that he had fainted.

"Uh oh."

She screamed and ran off and ten seconds later came back with Jyou. She pointed at the floor. "See?"

He blinked and stared down at his digimon partner, sighing. 

He shook his head. "You did it, didn't you? Confessed your love."

"Actually, just kissed him."

Jyou rolled his eyes and shook his friend. "Gomamon? Gomamon, wake up."

Gomamon slowly roused and blinked, staring up into Jyou's face. "What?"

"Are you okay?" Jyou asked. 

Gomamon looked towards Hikari. "Did you kiss me?"

She nodded, smiling. 

"Er, why?"

"Because I love you, Gomamon."

"Don't you think...er...you don't mind...that I'm..."

"That you're a digimon? Of course not! Love is blind!"

"It must be."

"Gomamon, be nice."

Gomamon leapt up into Hikari's arms and she happily hugged him tightly. Gomamon kissed her back and smiled. "You know, I'm starting to like you, too."

Just then, Taichi and Yamato walked into the room, sleepily rubbing their eyes.

"Hikari, why did you scream?"

"Gomamon fainted."

"Eh, why?"

"Because I kissed him."

Taichi and Yamato both blinked. "How did you do that?" Taichi asked.

"What do you mean?"

He looked at Yamato and they both shifted on their feet. "He means...where...um..." Yamato began. "Where are his lips?"

"Um..."

Hikari stared at Gomamon and Gomamon stared back. They both looked at Taichi and Yamato.

"We'll work something out," Hikari assured them.

Taichi and Yamato looked at each other and cracked twin grins.

"Dude, this has been a weird-ass night," Taichi said.

Yamato nodded, walking back to bed. "You said it."

~ ~ ~ ~

A/N: Haha. I hope no one flames me for that. I just thought...wouldn't that be as cute as hell and still as hilarious as hell? You know, throw in a good fic-ender-funny-joke-thingy. Which reminds me, the fic's over. Wah! I hope it was as good as I hope it was. Does that make sense? Who cares? Sorry I'm in a very very weird mood. R/R! And that's definitely the last chapter, don't even think of trying to convince me to write another. It's over. O-V-E-R. Goodbye, everyone.


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